Swan Lake: Enemy Mine

This album comes roaring out of the gates with “Spanish Gold, 2044,” one of my favorite songs of 2009, and must be a Mercer song based on its off-kilter approach. The question with Swan Lake is always, “Where are they gonna go from here?” It’s always a crapshoot, with three guys splitting frontman duties in this, the ultimate nerdy Canadian (and not in a Rush kind of way) indie rock dream band. Are we gonna get a soaring Bowie-esque jaunt from Bejar (of New Pornographers and Destroyer), a jaunty pirate tune from Krug (of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown) or a primordial dirge from Mercer (of Frog Eyes)? Or maybe something in between. The answer is soon apparent as “Paper Lace” follows as the second track, which is actually a track in different form from Sunset Rubdown’s Dragonslayer album. That must mean Bejar is up third! And there he is with his lovely “Heartswarm” on track 3. It’s just always hard to tell with these supergroups if they’re giving you the best stuff they have, or if you’re getting the cast-offs from their fulltime bands. After all, it’s pretty clear from track to track who is the mind behind each. Don’t get me wrong, there is some really good stuff here, but it’s almost like getting a really tiny bowl of delicious French onion soup, a tiny steak and a little itty-bitty chocolate desert. They’re all delicious in their own right, and as a whole pretty satisfying, but sometimes you just want a big fuckin’ steak or a big fuckin’ slice of chocolate cake. I guess that’s what their proper albums are for…